15 Fitness Myths That Aren’t True

From myths about an empty stomach helping to drop calories to common exercises that are actually useless, we count 15 things you’ve always believed about exercise that simply aren’t true

15 – Stretching,

Many believe stretching before you begin a workout to be crucial in order to prevent injury and muscle spasms – but the opposite is true

By stretching before a strenuous workout, you’re actually destabilising your muscles and making them MORE susceptible to injury – stretching by itself is fine, but not right before a workout session

If you’re looking for some other way to prepare for a workout, try warming up with a little treadmill running or biking – that way you’ll get your blood pumping and your body ready for more rigorous exercise

14 – Sit-ups/Crunches,

The myth goes that doing a few sets of sit-ups or crunches a day will strengthen your abs and make you lose fat, neither of which is true

A sit-up is a very basic exercise that only puts strain on one tiny part of your body, which means, sure, you’ll strengthen your abs, but very slowly – and since the rest of your body isn’t being used, those abs will be covered in a thick layer of fat because your sit-up exercise is only burning less than 2 calories per session

In order to actually see your flashy abs, you’re going to need to incorporate squats, full-body weights and on-your-spine toe touches at the very least

13 – Squats,

People are always nervous about doing squats – the idea of putting all that pressure on the knees couldn’t possibly lead to anything good

But like with all exercise training, you’re building up the muscles to be stronger – I was actually diagnosed with some mild osteoarthritis in one of my knees a couple of years ago, but now that I’ve been doing squats everyday my knees are more than fine – today I can crunch a cow’s face in with my knee and have it squirt milk from its ear

If you do work out with squats though, make sure you’re squatting low, to the point where your thighs are parallel to the ground – or even lower than that if you can, otherwise the exercise is pointless

12 – Treadmill,

Most would say that spending 15 minutes on the treadmill will help drop the pounds, and while it IS true, the reality is you’re way, way better off with interval and weight training

Running and biking are good warm-up exercises, but straining your body on weights pinches and pulls every muscle in your body – just as sit-ups are inferior to more focused weight training, so too is cardio to weights

That’s not to say it’s a waste of time – you’re much better off running on the treadmill than nothing at all, but compared to healthy eating and interval weight training, you’ll reach your weight goal much slower

11 – Empty Stomach,

Some people feel that by exercising on an empty stomach, your body will bypass your stomach and instead tap into your fat stores to burn it much quicker

While it’s true that if the body is deprived on nutrients that it’ll use body fat, working out is different – when your body has an empty stomach, it’ll instead burn into your muscles which totally renders a fat-loss diet ineffective

Furthermore, the lack of nutrients circulating through your body actually leads to a sub-optimal workout since your body is craving one thing and losing another